The state of Wisconsin’s wolf
hunting season began at an hour before dawn today, October 15th, and runs
non-stop until the end of February.

Wisconsin received more than
20,000 applications for just 1,160 permits, some from as far away as
Florida, Texas, and California. (Meanwhile, in Minnesota, wildlife officials
have set a quota of 400 wolves and awarded 6,000 permits.)State rules
allow hunters to slay wolves by a crude assortment of methods and with a
callous array of sadistic devices, including luring with bait, strangulation
by snaring and slow-death in steel-jawed leg-hold traps.

In addition,
the state had planned to allow hunters to start using hounds to hunt wolves
beginning Nov. 26, when their deer season ends. But Dane County Judge Peter
Anderson issued a temporary injunction against the use of dogs on Aug. 31,
after humane societies and environmental groups sued. (Though Wisconsin
currently does not allow the use of hounds for hunting wolves, they do allow
hounding for bears, raccoons and many other undeserving species).

Kurt Thiede, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources* (DNR) lands
division administrator, has issued a statement in support of the use of
hounds: “We … have learned from other states that harvesting a wolf can be
difficult. The use of dogs is a key way to increase hunter success. We will
continue to work with the court to remove the injunction on the use of
dogs….” (*Note to Mr. Thiede and the rest of the DNR: Wolves are not a
“resource,” they are intelligent, sentient beings. Also, killing them is not
“harvesting,” it’s murder!)Wolves were once abundant in Wisconsin,
numbering around 5,000 in the 19th century, before they were hunted and
trapped to extinction.

Wolves have recently been shown to contribute
to a greater diversity of understory plants, as well as improved deer herd
and trout stream conditions, but the Wisconsin DNR has decided to allow
hunters and trappers to kill 201 wolves this year alone.

Today the
wolf population is growing and DNR estimates that the state could support
700 to 1,000 wolves. Yet they speculated that “this level may not be
socially tolerated” and therefore have decided to limit the state’s wolf
population to only 350 individuals. Of course, hunters and trappers are
all-too eager to help…

Again, the injunction on the ‘hounding’ is
only in place UNTIL DEC 20THVoice your objections to the use of hounds
for wolf hunting and tell the court that hounding is not acceptable! Tell
the governor and the legislators that the Wisconsin wolf hunt is
exceptionally savage and will give the state a black eye. Please continue to
put pressure on the governor’s office, the legislators, and the tourism
department:

You may also want to
tell the tourism department that you will be unable to bring your family to
Wisconsin for any future vacations, as you do not patronize the wolf killing
states:Wisconsin Dept. of Tourism1-800-432-8747 or 608-266-2161
201 West Washington Ave.P. O. Box 8690Madison, WI 53708-8690tourinfo@travelwisconsin.com